Well, the East has been thrown wide open.   South Carolina has knocked off the Duke Blue Devils 88-81 in Greenville, South Carolina.   The Gamecocks found themselves down 10 early in the second half, but came back – led by Sindarius Thornwell’s 24 points.  And now, a team that had not won an NCAA game in 44 years going into this tournament now finds themselves in the Sweet 16 in a region that has lost both its top 2 seeds.   Now, #3 Baylor and #4 Florida find themselves the favorites in a region that was figured to be won by either the ACC tournament champion or the defending national champion.

This is also big from a conference perspective as well – who would have figured when we started the tournament with 9 ACC teams, that only the regular season champion, the North Carolina Tar Heels, would be playing in the Sweet 16.

Rhode Island looked like they were going to become Cinderella – the only remaining double digit seed from a mid-major conference.  They had the lead all the way to 11 points to start the second half.   But slowly and surely, the Oregon Ducks chipped away at the lead.   And with the lead at 4 with a little over 2 minutes to go, bad things started to happen.   The Ducks hit one of two free throws to cut the lead to 3, got the rebound, and kicked the ball out to Tyler Dorsey – who calmly sank a three-pointer to tie the game.   Then, with 40 seconds, Dorsey drilled another three pointer from the top of the key to give the Ducks the lead.    Dorsey finished the night with 27 points, but none were bigger than his last 6.

Rhode Island got a couple chances to tie the game, but Stanford Robinson and EC Matthews missed their game-tying three pointers, and Oregon was able to run out the clock.   And for those of us who can tear up our brackets, the clock sadly struck midnight on the Cinderella Rams.   And for Oregon Ducks and Pac 12 fans, breathe a sigh of relief – the Ducks have survived and advanced.

Kansas always stayed a few steps ahead of Michigan State, until they blew the game out of the water in the second half.    North Carolina’s game wasn’t as easy – as the Tar Heels found themselves down 65-60 with 3 minutes to play before scoring the last 12 points of the game to win and advance.    That was a really great try by Arkansas who looked like they were going to pull the upset, but UNC didn’t panic and managed to survive and advance.

So, Tar Heel fans, you can breathe a sigh of relief – UNC is in the Sweet 16.   Now, you can join the rest of us in seeing whether or not Rhode Island can take out Oregon – they have a 6 point lead with 12 to play.    And USC has cut Baylor’s double digit lead to 5 at half (can the Trojans really win their third straight tournament game after falling behind by double digits….)     Still lots of basketball to play tonight!!!

Wichita State did their best to try and add another Cinderella to the Sweet 16 – but every time the Shockers would tie the game or take the lead, Kentucky would go on a mini-run and get the lead back to 4-6 points.   So, the SEC champion will be making its way to the Sweet 16 again, where they will wait for the winner of the UCLA / Cincinnati winner.

Just six more spots left for the Sweet 16 – should be some exciting games to wrap up the first weekend!!!

The Louisville Cardinals were up 8 points at half-time – something everyone would expect out of a 2 seed in a 2nd round game.    But the Cardinals opponent are not any normal opponent.   Because the Michigan Wolverines seem to be on one of those magical journeys.

This team has been through a tremendous amount in the last couple of weeks.   But something has been different about this team since their charter plane to the Big Ten tournament had to abort their take-off and crashed due to the high winds.   For those who have been following this story, you knew that they would probably make a run at some point.

Moritz Wagner scored a career high 26 points to help lead the Wolverines back, Derrick Walton, Jr. – who had a unusually poor shooting game – hit a fantastic drive to the basket to keep the lead at 4, and then DJ Wilson hit four free throws to make sure that Louisville couldn’t catch them.   And the Wolverines become the third Big 10 team into the Sweet 16.

Much has been made by the media about how this has been a weak year for the Big 10.   The regular season champion from Purdue barely snuck into the protected seeds as the last of the 4 seeds.   The Wisconsin Badgers, who were ranked 7th in the AP poll and 5th in the Coaches Poll on February 6th, went on a losing streak where they lost 4 of 5 games, but they righted the ship in the conference tournament by making it to the championship game – they were given an 8 seed.   And these magical Wolverines who won the Big 10 tournament by sweeping 4 games in 4 days were only ranked a couple of spots ahead of the Badgers – getting a 7 seed.

Thanks to that seeding, the tournament no longer has defending champion Villanova – the #1 seed in the tournament, and ACC powerhouse Louisville, who was the last 2 seed.    But this leads to something that does bother me.    When teams lose in the ACC and the Big 12, it is because those conferences are so strong that it is tough to go through that tough schedule without some blemishes – and so those losses are OK.   But you lose a few road games in the Big 10 (by the way, Wisconsin’s 4 losses that took them from top 10 in the polls to an 8 seed were Northwestern, and road games to Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State) and you are punished for not being able to beat weak teams.  If you go 10-8 in the Pac 12 like USC but don’t beat Arizona, UCLA, or Oregon, you didn’t beat anyone.  Well, the 4 Pac 12 teams haven’t lost yet in the tournament.  No one talks about the strength of the SEC, but Kentucky, Arkansas and South Carolina are still playing in the 2nd round and Florida is already in the Sweet 16 after being an ACC team by 26 points.

Great basketball is played all around this country – not just on Tobacco Road.    I am not saying that the ACC isn’t tough – I am sure no one would want to have to play the likes of UNC, Duke and Louisville twice every season.    But there are lots of really talented teams outside of the ACC – it would be great if the media gave those other teams and conferences just a little more attention.    It looks like these teams are going to claim that attention the best way possible – winning games and advancing in the tournament.

I don’t think my heart can take much more than this.   Purdue had a 19 point lead, and then, I got to watch as the Cyclones slowly chipped away at the lead, all the way until they actually took a 2 point lead.    But then, PJ Thompson hit a wide open three pointer to get the lead, and then Caleb Swanigan and Vince Edwards got some great baskets in the post to give Purdue a larger lead.

Yet, it still came down to 11 seconds and the need to hit a free throw to ice the game.   Some of you might have remembered that Purdue had a lead against Michigan in the Big 10 championship, but missed a FT with 11 seconds giving Michigan the chance to tie the game and send it to overtime – we all know what happened after that.

So, now here is Dakota Mathias, a 84% FT shooter on the line – and sure enough, he misses the free throw.  And it was Wooden Award finalist Caleb Swanigan – who had his 28th double-double of the season – skying over everyone to get the rebound and kick it out to Thompson.   So, now with 7 seconds, PJ Thompson – the same guy who missed the FT against Michigan, nervously rattles home both FTs to ice the game for the Boilers.

When they had a 19 point lead, I wasn’t expecting that the game would be so exciting – but at the end of the day, the Boilers did what you need to do in this tournament – survive and advance.

As for the leaders, Ryan Zotti still holds onto his 10 point lead over Rohit Kapoor, Dan Wells, and Earl McKnight.   Sadly, if you had just picked the better team in the AP Poll, you would be tied with Ryan – but we all know the AP Poll will eventually slide – they have Villanova as the champion.

I need to now slow my heart back down – hopefully, I can get to sleep – have so much adrenaline going through me right now – so happy Purdue won.

Today was the day of Katie’s Daisies Father-Daughter Dance – which was very cute.   When Katie and I left for the dance, Northwestern was getting crushed by Gonzaga.    When I got home, I found out that Northwestern closed the gap all the way to 6 in an awesome attempt to keep their season alive – instead Gonzaga held on to give coach Mark Few his 500th career win.

I also found out that #11 Xavier beat Florida State by 25 points.   I don’t even know what happened there – Xavier just destroyed one of the better teams from the ACC to get to the Sweet 16.    I don’t know what Xavier figured out during the Big East tournament – but they went from a team that could only beat DePaul in February to beating up on Maryland and Florida State.

#4 Butler held on to win against Middle Tennessee State – will this be another magical year for the Bulldogs.   St. Mary’s and Arizona look like they are in a fantastic battle.  And the Cavaliers let Florida score the last 12 points of the half to find themselves down 13 points.

Now, I must go, because the Purdue game has begun.   The Lunatic will be in a very nervous, crazy state as he hopes his Boilers make their way to the Sweet 16 – they will have to beat a very good Iowa State to get there.

In a tournament full of chalk, you had to figure this one was coming.   The tournament always has some madness – it just chose to wait for the 2nd game of the 2nd round for it.

The Badgers started off early to a 9-3 lead, and despite Ethan Happ being in foul trouble for most of the half, they held on to a small lead at half time.   Foul trouble continued to plague the Badgers until Villanova built a 57-50 lead.

But there is no quit in these Badgers – led by four seniors.   And with the game tied, Nigel Hayes drove to the basket and made a nice layup to give Wisconsin the lead with 11 seconds.   Villanova’s star Josh Hart drove to the lane to try to tie the game, but Vitto Brown stole the ball from him at the hoop before he could go up for a shot, got fouled and hit the first free throw to give the Badgers the lead.   Brown missed the second FT and Villanova got the rebound, but two Badgers quickly surrounded him so he couldn’t make an outlet pass, and time ran out on the defending champions.

So, Wisconsin is returning to the Sweet 16, and many of us (including the Lunatic’s insane picks) can rip up their bracket as their champion is now gone.    And my wife laughed as I shouted, “I knew I should have picked Duke to win the East”.   But who are we kidding, then the Lunatic Curse would have just ended the Blue Devils tournament instead.   So, remember that Duke fans – I apparently have your back.

Saturday’s games have kicked off – West Virginia jumped out to a quick 10-0 lead against Norte Dame and never looked back.

The Mountaineers full court press was extremely impressive – as the Irish constantly had difficulty trying to get the ball in bounds and across the half court line – and every time the Irish would try to make a run, West Virginia would hit a big three pointer and extend the lead.

Congratulations to the Mountaineers on being the first team to advance to the Sweet 16.

Congratulations to Ryan Zotti – who leads both the Standard and Upset Pools.    That is because Ryan did something pretty amazing – he went 31 of 32 in the first round, only missing on the USC / SMU game (which by the way was a 1 point game).   So, really was just a single basket from still having a perfect bracket after 32 games.   Really very impressive.

Andrew Braslow is alone in 2nd place with an impressive 30-2 record.   Both Rob Nesbitt’s picks, Andrew Braslow, Chris Peterson, and Evan Goldstein are trailing by only 20 points after going 29-3.   And 18 of you are tied for 9th with a 28-4 record.

As far as the upset pool, the leaders are basically the same – Ryan has 159 pts, followed by Andrew at 150 pts, Chris at 147 pts and Evan at 145 pts.   Dan Wells (one of our 28-4 players) rounds out the top 5 at 144 pts.

As for the Lunatic, if you had told me before the tournament started that I would go 26-6 and 25-7 in the first round, I would be pretty excited.    Yet, that is only good enough for a tie for 57th and 116th place.    That is why this is the Stomp the Lunatic tournament – you all are really good at predicting college basketball games!!!!!

Good luck to everyone in the second round!!!!